The Last
Crisis --EGW
Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity
cannot enter. Isa. 59:14. {LHU 356.1}
We are living in the time of the end. The fast-fulfilling signs of the
times declare that the coming of Christ is near at hand. The days in which
we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely
being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling
upon the despisers of the grace of God. The calamities by land and sea, the
unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They
forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude. {LHU 356.2}
The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are
strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take
place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones. {LHU 356.3}
The condition of things in the world shows that troublous times are right
upon us. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in
the near future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are
common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed of
demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children. Men have
become infatuated with vice, and every species of evil prevails. {LHU
356.4}
The enemy has succeeded in perverting justice and in filling men's hearts
with the desire for selfish gain. "Justice standeth afar off: for
truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." In the great
cities there are multitudes living in poverty and wretchedness, well-nigh
destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; while in the same cities are
those who have more than heart could wish, who live luxuriously, spending
their money on richly furnished houses, on personal adornment, or worse
still, upon the gratification of sensual appetites, upon liquor, tobacco,
and other things that destroy the powers of the brain, unbalance the mind,
and debase the soul. The cries of starving humanity are coming up before
God, while by every species of oppression and extortion men are piling up
colossal fortunes (Testimonies, vol. 9, pp. 11, 12). {LHU 356.5}
The Scriptures describe the condition of the world just before Christ's
second coming (ibid., p. 13). {LHU 356.6}
Fearful tests and trials await the people of God. The spirit of war is
stirring the nations from one end of the earth to the other. But in the
midst of the time of trouble that is coming--a time of trouble such as has
not been since there was a nation--God's chosen people will stand unmoved.
Satan and his host cannot destroy them, for angels that excel in strength
will protect them (ibid., p. 17). {LHU 356.7}
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